


The Incident on the Third Floor

by superdanganisland



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Animal Abuse, Gen, Oneshot, Spoilers up to chapter 4, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-01-09
Packaged: 2018-03-06 20:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3147164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superdanganisland/pseuds/superdanganisland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the day before the next murder, someone is stirring up trouble in the Strawberry House...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Incident on the Third Floor

**Author's Note:**

> Another short story crossposted from tumblr and written about a year ago, just as something that kinda crossed my mind. This functions as a bit of a "deleted scene" in the middle of chapter 4.

The third day in the bizarre funhouse was beginning to take its toll on the students who remained. The lack of food paired with the obnoxiously bright atmosphere was making everyone a bit more irritable than usual, and as everyone’s energy slowly disappeared, distrust began to circulate amongst them. It was a taboo subject to bring up, but a hard deadline was looming on the horizon. Even with as well as they got along for the most part, the question remained— would one of them really kill another to get out of here this time? Hinata didn’t think any of his friends had it in them to murder someone, but he’d been surprised more than once already.

The thought made him shiver. Assuming he didn’t kill anyone, and he certainly wasn’t planning on it… two of his friends would need to die if he ever hoped to see the outside world again. One by murder, the other by execution. The only other option was for all of them to starve to death. None of these were particularly pleasant, and bargaining with Monokuma only got them extra time added onto their morning exercise routine. Five extra minutes for every complaint, he said. That shut them up in a hurry.

Talking through their situation was going to be critical, however, as miscommunication had already proved fatal more than once. It was going to be an extremely touchy subject, one that everyone seemed to be dodging around, pretending as usual that everything would be alright. The pit was forming in his stomach already. How do you casually bring up to a group of friends that at least two of them are going to have to die, no matter what? Which of them would be willing to agree to that sort of fate?

Because of the circumstances, the nine students that were left had decided to hold a sort of meeting early that day. If nothing else, at least they could potentially feel more comfortable around each other after an opportunity to talk things out. Almost all of them had gathered in the Muscat Tower by 10 am that morning. The remaining students stood in a circle, their faces gaunt and sickly, casting careful glances amongst themselves as they waited to begin.

All but one, that is— they were still waiting on Komaeda, which was particularly suspicious.

“He’s late, that bastard. Who the fuck does he think he is, holding us up like this?” Kuzuryuu grumbled. “I even knocked on his door to get his ass out of his room before we came down here. He better not be asleep.”

“We were all waiting in the lobby for him, but he never showed up…” Nidai said, gesturing to himself and the other boys. “We ended up leaving without him.”

Souda tugged at his collar. “…You don’t think he’s planning to like… murder someone, is he?” he said. “If anyone here would do it, it’d definitely be that guy!”

“Well if he does, I’ll just kick his ass, alright?” Owari cracked her knuckles.

“No, no one’s murdering anyone or kicking anyone’s asses, alright? At least, I hope not,” Hinata said. “…Where the hell _is_ Komaeda, though?”

“I don’t even remember seein’ that kid go back to his room, to be honest. Y'think he’s out wandering around? I bet he’s up to something!” Souda said.

Hinata wanted to shoot down Souda’s remark, telling him to quit worrying about it so much, but he, too, was feeling a bit uneasy. After all, Komaeda _did_ sort of initiate that first murder just because he could. On the other hand, he’d been helpful at solving each of the other murder cases, if not in a somewhat roundabout way. The kid was so damn unpredictable it was hard to tell what was ever going on in his head or whose side he was on at any given moment.

All at once, their eyes turned up as the creak of the neon door being opened echoed across the empty room. All one could hear for a few short seconds was the quiet tapping of the stranger's footsteps across the hard floor followed shortly by an audible gasp from a number of the students.

Hinata stuttered. “Ko-Komaeda! What happened…?!”

The boy looked to him. “Huh…? Ahaha, don’t worry about me,” Komaeda said, waving a hand to the side. A quick look at the other’s faces confirmed the fear in their eyes. There it was again— that deep, familiar sense of dread, a feeling that was all too recognizable— and they had every reason to be on edge.

Komaeda’s face was painted red with blood.

The liquid dripped from his nose to his chin, with some of it splattered on his white hair, and more of it spotting his shirt. It appeared that that he had attempted to wipe some of it away, but had not gone to clean himself up yet. It was obvious at first glance that this was not a simple nosebleed. He seemed disturbingly more calm than he should have been.

“Komaeda, y-you’re bleeding everywhere! What happened to you?!” Hinata exclaimed, stepping towards him. Komaeda continued to lazily walk forwards and joined the circle, the students nearby parting to the sides to give him space. At least it was certain that he hadn’t gone and murdered anyone, seeing as everyone was present in the room. That, at least, was a partial relief.

He rubbed his face with his sleeve. “…What happened, you ask? Oh, it’s nothing you need to worry about,” His voice was relaxed and deeply unsettling. “Someone attacked me upstairs in the Strawberry House. That’s all.” His last few words sent a wave of anxiety through the remaining students.

“S-Someone attacked you…?” Souda stammered. His face was drained of color.

“Who did this to you? You poor thing!” Sonia said. Tanaka, standing next to her, simply glared at the boy.

“Yeah, who-” Hinata said, pausing for a moment as he realized what he was potentially asking for. With everyone present, revealing anyone as a culprit would put a knife in their meeting. Any hope of trusting one another anymore would be out the window, if it wasn’t already. He swallowed the thought and continued. “Who… who did it?” Assuming Komaeda wasn’t lying, someone in the room had assaulted him. Was it an attempted murder gone wrong?

“Who did it? Ah, it’s not important.”

“Wha-? _Komaeda!!_ Don’t do this to us now!” Hinata snapped. He was going to be frustrating as usual, it seemed.

“H-Hey… Can you at least like, give us a hint, or something?” Souda croaked. “… So I can remember to stay about a hundred yards away from them?”

Komaeda brushed them off. “I’m sure all you hopeful students can figure it out on your own when the time comes. After all, the trial would be rather boring if I told you right here.”

“Thank you for being cooperative, Komaeda,” Nanami commented, though one could tell there was a slight bitterness to her tone.

Nidai yanked the white towel from his back pocket and threw it at him. “C’mon. Let’s at least get you cleaned up. Can’t have you going around looking like that.”

“Ahh, I can’t believe you Super High School Levels are worried about someone like me!” He snatched the towel and buried his face into it.

Owari clasped her hands together again and whipped her head around the room. “So, someone in here’s going around messin’ up defenseless kids, huh? How ‘bout I rip those arms of yours right off? I’ll fight you right here, coward!”

Kuzuryuu, who was standing next to her, gave her an elbow. “Save your energy. That fucker isn’t gonna tell us anything.” She exhaled loudly.

Hinata sighed. The meeting that was supposed to help them feel better around each other couldn’t possibly be going any worse. He spoke up once more. “But, seriously… did, well, whoever did that to you … were they actually trying to kill you?”

Komaeda looked up from his towel, his face looking somewhat better than before. “Hmm… I’m not sure. I suppose they were.”

“Well, you don’t just get attacked for no fucking reason!” Kuzuryuu yelled.

“…That’s a good point,” Komaeda said. “Whatever it was, I probably deserved it.”

———-

Komaeda looked up at a nearby clock as he wandered through the third floor of the strawberry house. It was only 9 am. The other boys had retired to their rooms to conserve their energy before the apparent meeting later that morning, but Komaeda was restless. The only thing noteworthy about the third floor was the playground set, not that he had the energy to use it. In addition, there was a large sunflower planter positioned against the wall. “Hmm… so this is where the hamsters have been getting their food.”

He sat down on one of the swings and pushed himself lazily with one foot. He was growing quickly bored of the monotony of the funhouse, not to mention the aesthetics. After three days of no food, the hunger was growing so fierce that it was making him sick. If nothing happened soon, he and his fellow students would start dropping like flies.

 _“What a waste of perfectly good talent…”_ he thought to himself. He didn’t want to admit the situation at hand was hopeless. There must be something he could do to stir up these students, to draw out their hope. Something that would get them to act. He closed his eyes and let the ideas flow through his head, considering all of the potential candidates. He didn’t wish to directly kill anyone himself, but other options remained.

A few more minutes passed before he opened his eyes again, where he saw a small shape enter the room and scurry off towards the planter. Curious, he leaned forward to get a better look.

“Oh… one of Tanaka’s hamsters,” he said. The hamster, not realizing a human was in the room, stopped in its tracks and pointed itself towards him. Komaeda got up from his swing and began slowly walking towards it. The hamster did not seem afraid of him, just curious. He stopped next to it and kneeled down. “Shouldn’t you be with Tanaka?” he asked, gently prodding its cheek. “I would imagine he’s worried if you’re off by yourself.”

The ideas began rushing through his head again, demented thoughts that no one in their right mind would consider. Komaeda was a special case.

“Mmm… it’s dangerous out here, you know,” he said, rubbing the top of the hamster’s head slightly more roughly. It stood up to meet his hand.

Komaeda realized that he had in his possession at the very moment the ability to draw out the emotion from one of his fellow students. His heartbeat sped up at the thought. Deep down, it felt wrong, it felt perverse, and yet he wanted to make that first move. His pupils constricted within his dull grey eyes— eyes that were now tainted with madness.

“…Who’s going to protect you when Tanaka isn’t here?” he said, a wicked tone manifesting itself in his voice. The hamster began to sense that something was off, but before it could make a move, Komaeda’s fingers tensed up and pushed the rodent flat on its belly. The hamster squeaked madly in protest - it had no idea what was going on, as no human had handled it this way before. In a second motion, he gingerly placed the sole of his shoe on the hamster’s back, applying only enough pressure to keep it pinned in place.

Komaeda held it there for a few moments, going over his options as the tiny rodent lay helpless at his mercy. He enjoyed the feeling of power he had – not just over the hamster, but of Tanaka, as well. If he carried through with this, it might be enough to stir up the pot.

He increased the pressure slightly. How delicate these things were, he thought. As its head was poking out slightly, he could see it was struggling wildly to take in air.

"...!"

He applied a bit more pressure to the rodent, causing it to screech hoarsely. A small, sadistic smirk appeared across his face. If he was going to do it, now was his chance.

It was right after that that he suddenly noticed the pair of intense eyes watching him from the door.

Komaeda turned his head upwards and focused his vision on the person in the shadow.  He had not even heard them come up the stairs, though they had not likely been there long. It was the purple scarf that was the dead giveaway of the identity of his observer. Komaeda instinctively locked up.

Before he could even react, the breeder bolted forward with blinding speed, and without saying a word, wheeled around and delivered a ferocious kick to Komaeda’s face so vicious that it was a wonder that the boy’s jaw didn’t snap in two.

A sharp _crack_ echoed across the room as the boot struck his cheek and Komaeda was instantly sprawled out across the floor, a spray of blood painting the wall nearby. The blow was so violent that he was briefly disoriented. The sounds he could hear, besides the loud ringing in his ears, came in only as a soft muffle as he struggled to regain focus. He sputtered, trying to get the warm taste of blood out of his mouth as it began trailing down towards his chin.

He oriented himself towards the source of the disturbance, trying to focus on what the sounds were. Slowly, the world around him was coming into focus. It sounded like Tanaka was trying to say something to him. Perhaps “say” was a poor word choice. As the sounds became louder and more clear, it became apparent that the breeder was roaring furiously at him, his face red with unspeakable rage, the words pouring out of his mouth so rapidly and intensely that Komaeda could not even attempt to comprehend them. _I can’t understand him… what’s that?_ The hamster, it seemed, had managed to escape to safety following the blow.

He let the words wash over him. A few choice phrases did catch his attention, though they were typical Tanaka-isms that he almost couldn’t take seriously as the man howled at him. “…VILE _HELL_ -SPAWN!!  TO PERFORM SUCH CRUELTY UPON THE DEFENSELESS!! DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?! IS THIS WHAT YOU DESIRE?! YOU WILL BURN AT THE HANDS OF-“

_Hah… is this his hope? Did I find it, that which would send Tanaka over that edge?_

Komaeda took the back of his hands and wiped it across his mouth, pulling it away to reveal a tiny smirk to the enraged breeder. Tanaka’s eyes flashed. He lunged forward and forcefully grasped the boy by the tangled hair on the back of his neck and snapped his head upwards to look him in the eyes. His held his face mere inches away from the other. His powerful glare alone was enough to kill the average human being, but Komaeda, however, was not exactly average.

“…What’s that, devil? Are you proud of yourself?” he snorted. “Proud of overpowering a frail being, dare I say a god, nonetheless, whose stature is but a tiny fraction of your own?” Komaeda did not answer, only breathing heavily through crooked lips, causing Tanaka to jolt him to attention once more. He winced slightly at his hair being yanked and looked him directly in the eyes. “Do you derive _PLEASURE_ from this?! At the _torture_ of others, for your own twisted entertainment?” he growled.

Komaeda let out a weak laugh, an infuriatingly arrogant laugh, one that caused even Tanaka’s skin to crawl. The breeder glared into the other’s eyes for a few brief moments as though he was trying to read him.

He squinted. “…What sort of foul demon seed has implanted itself into your skull? Is this truly the very same Komaeda we met on the first day on this island?” He breathed heavily, not breaking his stare for even a moment, a truly deadly aura surrounding him that would make any person’s hair stand on end. However threatening, Komaeda was not phased.

The sheer potency of the man’s reaction was enough to send a shiver down Komaeda’s spine. He had never quite experienced anything like this before. _Was this hope?_ His definition of hope was so twisted at this point that it could not even be clearly defined anymore. Nothing else, beyond hurting one of his close friends on the island, would illicit this kind of response. His actions were a direct insult to everything the breeder stood for, and he had snapped.

Tanaka curled his lip into a snarl and dropped the boy to the ground. In a continuous motion, he whirled around and swiftly but gently scooped up his terrified hamster and held it close to his chest. The creature buried itself into his cupped hands.

“…San-D! Are you alright?” he cooed. His heart thumped heavily in his chest, imagining the consequences if he had arrived even seconds later. She was obviously shaken but not visibly injured. He held her up against his cheeks, still hot from his outburst.

He jerked his body towards the boy again, the icy expression appearing on his face once more. “There is a special place in hell for your type, you cur. They call it the ninth layer. And I’ll be damned, if we both die on this god-forsaken island, I’ll be sure to drag you down there personally.”

With his last words lingering in the air, he hastily exited the room, leaving Komaeda in a mess of his own blood.

——————

_“…Whatever it was, I probably deserved it.”_

“…Don’t be like that, Komaeda,” Hinata said. “We’ll figure this out, alright?”

“Y-Yes, no one deserves that,” Sonia added. Tanaka took a deep, audible breath, but it was largely ignored.

Tanaka knew that if left to his own devices, Komaeda would certainly strike again. And based on his previous track record, he would most likely aim for the weakest targets –  Sonia, Souda, and Nanami all came to mind first. Something needed to be done, and quickly, if he were going to prevent such an outcome.

The group tried to get back on track but the topic of the meeting had been thoroughly derailed by this point. There was no use discussing peaceful cooperation when everyone was now worried about getting ambushed. They decided to end the meeting prematurely and focus on precautionary measures instead.

“Let’s just make sure to stick together in groups, alright? No more going off on our own,” Hinata said. “We’ll make it through this… I’m sure of it.” The others nodded halfheartedly and bunched together to head back to their rooms.

The atmosphere certainly felt unpleasant between the boys’ group as the five members of the Strawberry House ambled back up to the second floor. If one had been paying close enough attention, they might have been able to catch the deadly glare Tanaka cast back at Komaeda, who was holding up the back of the group. The incident was never brought up again.

**Author's Note:**

> 


End file.
